Cannon Countdown
by Clarissa Starsong
Summary: His thumb unconsciously stroked the emerald he was holding. The cannon would go off any time now. It was now or never. SA2B adaptation; Pen name has changed (prev. Moderntwilight64)


**A/N: This oneshot is basically an adaptation of Sonic and Shadow's final confrontation and fight in Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. I always loved this part, despite the awesome, but loud background music overshadowing the dialogue. My intention here basically was to capture their fight in more detail. I had some trouble coming up with the title for this so I may or may not change it.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Sonic franchise.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"This must be it." Sonic gazed down the long, sky blue road extending far ahead, squinting as he tried to figure out where it would end; hopefully at the Eclipse Cannon. The multi-colored digital lights on the ceiling and rails moved down their display panels in the opposite direction of the path. They seemed to zoom closer to him menacingly before passing by, as though they were urging him to go this way.

His thumb unconsciously stroked the emerald he was holding. The cannon would go off any time now. It was now or never.

"You never cease to surprise me blue hedgehog," A deep voice interjected from behind him. "I thought that the capsule you were in exploded in space." Shadow was eyeing him with interest, walking forward before changing to a light jog.

 _I was wondering when he'd show up!_ Sonic's smirk never left his face as he followed suit. "You know, what can I say, I die hard!" he boasted.

Shadow fought the urge to roll his eyes at the cheesy reply. _One would think that a near death experience would wise him up a bit!_

"You actually saved me, you know."

The raven-furred hedgehog raised an eyebrow at that. His rival's softened tone had a very slight hint of surprise that suggested this was a revelation to him as well. At his questioning glance, Sonic flashed a triumphant grin and held out his hand, without faltering in his pace, revealing an all too familiar gem.

Shadow's eyes widened slightly, barely masking his shock. "It _was_ a chaos emerald wasn't it?" He'd had his suspicions already upon learning that Sonic had gotten near the Eclipse Cannon barely a few minutes after Dr. Eggman had launched him into space. It'd seemed crazy at first, but now this emerald confirmed what he was inferring as the only explanation for Sonic's survival. He then recalled their first encounter in the city. Sonic had witnessed him using the chaos control to teleport, using a chaos emerald; which was probably how he got that idea to pull this off. _So this blue idiot had a working memory after all._

"You're gettin' warmer pal!" Sonic chuckled, watching his rival mentally piece together the past events at the ARK.

"You were launched into space, holding a fake emerald!" This time, Shadow's face was actually showing his disbelief. "There's no way you could have activated the Chaos Control with that!"

Sonic tilted his head, raising his eyebrows tauntingly.

The walls of the surrounding tunnel were a blur as both hedgehogs picked up speed.

"So," Shadow admitted. "There's more to you than just looking like me." His shock had changed to fascination. When they'd first met, Sonic had seemed like a big-mouthed, incompetent fool who was too full of himself to realize it; and he just so happened to look similar to him.

But he'd proven him wrong at every step; his impressive agility from the last time they'd faced off, escaping Prison Island with the limited time at hand, breaking through Dr. Eggman's base and to the ARK. And even now, with all odds stacked against him, Sonic just kept surviving every hurdle that was thrown his way. All out of sheer willpower. It seemed that with every impression Shadow had formed about him, some event would come along to change his perspective. Every. Time.

All this time, it had never occurred to Shadow that this faker could also call upon chaos energy, that too with a fake emerald! He was no ordinary hedgehog after all.

As these thoughts raced through his mind, ruby eyes burned into emerald, fascinated, curious; admiring his idiotic, annoying . . . courageous rival who was truly a mystery to him.

He had to ask, "What are you, anyway?"

Sonic flashed his trademark grin. "What you see is what you get, just a guy who loves adventure!" Then, his joking expression changed to that of determination, as he broke eye contact and set his focus ahead. As fun as this talk was, he had a cannon to shut down and it was clear that Shadow was not going to let him get there without a fight. _No more time to waste._ "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"I see," Shadow remarked, an intrigued smile on his face. He noted Sonic's change in demeanor and realized that he was going to rush to that cannon whether anyone liked it or not. Clearly he'd underestimated him far too many times. The ebony hedgehog narrowed his eyes. _But not anymore._ "Then I'm sure you understand, I can't let you live!"

In that instant, his air shoes activated and both hedgehogs stopped their jog, bursting into their full speed.

"Your adventuring days are coming to an end!" Shadow snarled as the ceiling disappeared from above them, the star-specked atmosphere and numerous ARK structures greeting them in outer space.

Sonic snickered. "All right then Shadow, time for me to finish this!" Then the azure hedgehog curled into a ball and spin-dashed into the other, hoping to end this fight as swiftly as possible.

Shadow saw this coming and performed the same maneuver, causing both hedgehogs to collide into one another. But unlike their previous fight in the forest, Sonic was prepared enough to make sure his feet faced his rival, allowing him to kick Shadow in the head.

The ebony hedgehog was knocked aside several feet, but kept his footing as he glided ahead. "You think you can win THAT easily?"

"Hey I always win!" Sonic shouted from several feet ahead. "Just ask that egghead you're working for!"

"You got lucky once with that fake emerald, but don't count on it a second time!" he taunted. "Before this is over, I'll show you the _true_ power of _chaos control_!" As soon as those last words were out of his mouth, he vanished from his spot . . . only to reappear in front of Sonic in a flash of green.

"Whoa sh-!" The surprised hedgehog was cut off with a savage punch to the gut.

Shadow crossed his arms, sneering at his rival, who coughed and struggled to catch his breath. "Ready to give up?"

"I'm not done with you yet!" Sonic snarled, before gesturing in the air, closing a gloved hand into a fist. "Sonic Wind!"

An aqua-colored gust of wind came out of nowhere and surrounded his startled opponent. Shadow let out a pained shout as it briefly lifted him in the air, whipped at him from all directions and tossed him roughly to the ground within seconds. When he tried to stand back up, he found that the abrupt motions the wind forced on him had pulled a few muscles. Seething, he gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain, and looked to where Sonic had dashed far ahead of him. "Time to put this to an end." He took off once again, very much looking forward to making the blue hedgehog's defeat a painful one. Once caught up, he prepared his attack. "Disappear!"

The chaos spear he launched missed the other by a hair's length, slamming into the ground instead.

Suddenly, the road between them began to shake violently and it split into several pieces. Sonic, who was about to call on another sonic wind, was cut off mid-attack and spin-dashed from his falling platform onto what was left of the road, narrowly escaping a fatal fall through space.

"Phew! That was close!" As he took off again, he looked around, finding no sign of his rival. "Definitely bought me some time though!"

"This is the ultimate power!" There was that same flash of green light and Shadow released another Chaos Spear almost as quickly as he'd appeared.

Sonic took the full force of the blast and was knocked back several feet, his head throbbing. He growled upon noticing the ebony hedgehog smirking at him and readying another blast. "I'll use YOUR method then!" Sonic yelled, gripping his emerald more tightly. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Another flash of green and he teleported several feet ahead, forcing down the wave of dizziness he felt and tried to stay straight on his path toward the cannon. _Crap, I forgot this is a fake. Last time I nearly passed out!_ "Ugh. I better not do that too often."

"Yes, please don't do that. Your incessant shouting is an assault on the senses." Shadow deadpanned from behind, before attempting to spin-dash into him again.

He side-stepped the attack and elbowed him in the face. Shadow briefly saw red before shaking his head and continuing, not once slacking in his pace.

"Ya know Shadow, you're not half bad" Sonic's compliment sounded surprisingly genuine. "What're you doing following Eggman around anyway?"

The black hedgehog chuckled. "Following? You really think I care about the doctor's conquest? _Please_." He aimed another chaos spear at Sonic, who casually dashed to the other side. The latter raised an eyebrow curiously at Shadow who continued, "You've been a worthy adversary, so I'll let you in on a little secret, faker."

"When we fired the Eclipse Cannon on the moon after his little announcement, people were certainly frightened, but not for long; certainly not due to the cannon's lack of power, though." The ebony hedgehog explained.

Emerald eyes twinkled with amusement as he realized what Shadow was getting at.

"'The Eggman Empire'," Shadow overemphasized the doctor's phrase, sneering. "Like that could strike fear into people's hearts."

The azure hedgehog laughed, noting with irony that he and his rival had briefly found common ground, not just from their abilities, but in mocking Eggman. Then something occurred to him. "Wait, so if you thought Eggman was a dope, then why work with him? You're clearly better off on your own." he lowered his voice. "And I'll tell ya something else. His plans never go well."

Shadow shook his head. "It was never _his_ _plan_ ; he just thinks as such. He's quite the scientist, but that pompous fool is too easy to manipulate. All I had to do was play on his shortsighted agenda, show him the Eclipse Cannon and then he jumped right to it."

"'Shortsighted agenda'?" Sonic frowned, catching on to his choice of words. He looked at him suspiciously. If Shadow found world domination to be a shortsighted agenda, then what did he want? Then it dawned on him. "You never wanted to take over the world, did you? You're planning something worse!"

Said hedgehog smiled knowingly. _Ah so he caught on to that. Perhaps he's not as stupid as I thought._ However, he quickly corrected this observation just as Sonic face-planted into a nearby piece of floating debris and landed on his back. Shadow merely laughed at him and continued to run. Sonic stood and was about to demand more answers, but then something caught his eye.

The pointed structure below the ARK- the Eclipse cannon. _Almost there, Sonic._ He thought as he changed his direction. _Can't waste more time on this fight. I can finish this later._

A beeping sound from his communicator distracted him briefly. Frowning, he pulled it out as he kept running.

* * *

"Sonic," Tails managed to keep a level tone as he addressed the communicator futilely, but his voice cracked briefly as a sob threatened to break its way through. "I did it."

Amy sat with her back against the wall, hugging her knees to her chest, completely silent.

Tails squeezed his eyes shut. He'd won. He'd defeated Eggman. This was hardly over, though. Sonic, his best friend, his brother, was gone. But they still had a mission to complete. He owed him that much to finish this. "Let's go Amy," Clenching his fists, he turned to said hedgehog. Truthfully, there wasn't much point in bringing her along but they were another step towards victory once more. The last thing he needed now was for her to get kidnapped again. "Let's get to that cannon."

A sudden crackling of the radio signal startled both of them and Tails retrieved it from his pocket again.

"Awesome job, little bro! I knew you could do it!"

His stiffened limbs and drooping tails suddenly perked up as his heart leaped with joy. "Sonic!" his cry of relief was nearly cut off by Amy who lunged at the radio, as if wanting to confirm if it was really true.

Sonic's voice sounded strained, indicating that he was in the middle of combat at the moment. But his voice was as cocky and confident as ever. "Look outside!"

The duo complied and from the window, a series of explosions caught their eye. Indeed there was Sonic, dashing through various space debris towards the cannon with the black hedgehog in hot pursuit; the golden blasts of energy he hurled at Sonic were cleverly dodged, instead tearing through everything in their path.

"Yeah! Go Sonic!" Tails cheered as his adoptive big brother met his gaze, flashing his trademark grin and thumbs up.

In their excitement however, Tails and Amy failed to notice their defeated opponent stirring; a thick, gloved hand reaching for the real chaos emerald lying carelessly on the floor.

* * *

Shadow slowed his pace, upon noticing that Sonic was no longer following him. From behind, he caught sight of a blue blur heading for the cannon. "Damn it!" he cursed. He made a beeline for the same destination, chastising himself for getting too caught up in this brawl and forgetting the original mission.

The azure hedgehog saw him catching up and winked at him. "Sorry to bail on this party, faker! Got a planet to save!"

"Not on my watch!" Shadow snarled. "Get back here you oversized rodent!"

Sonic burst into laughter at that. "Uh Shadow, my man? We're both the same species. If I'm a rodent, then that makes you….!" he left the rest to his rival's imagination.

Shadow picked up on the obvious implication and his body was further ignited by a white hot streak of anger. He lunged forward with a fierce yell, landing a savage punch to Sonic's eye. "Why you insolent little-!" he reached for a dazed Sonic, wrapping his fingers around his neck and pulling him close, "I am the world's Ultimate Life Form!" then slamming him against the wall. "YOU don't compare yourself to ME."

Sonic was seeing spots as he struggled to breathe amidst Shadow's vice-like grip on his throat and his throbbing headache. His foggy vision seemed to clear however, when his eye caught sight of something behind Shadow; a large computer screen next to a panel of seven consoles, six of which were already occupied with chaos emeralds.

"That's it . . . I've had . . . enough!" he coughed. With all his strength, he kneed Shadow in the gut and then socked him in the eye like he'd done to him earlier.

Shadow returned with another spin-dash and he countered as such. Both ebony and azure clashed like this in flashes of yellow and blue for several seconds until the latter unleashed another sonic wind that slammed his opponent through the floor.

He remained where he was, unmoving, for a few moments as Sonic stood over him. "Sure wish we were on the same side, Shadow." he said regretfully. "Too bad it had to go down like this."

Shadow chuckled at that and pushed himself to his knees, smirking at him. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, hedgehog."

Right at that moment, Sonic heard a _click!_ When he turned to look at the cannon controls, his stomach nearly dropped. _No! I actually…failed?_

Eggman stood jubilantly in front of the console, which now held all the chaos emeralds. Upon seeing the blue hedgehog, the man's jaw dropped and he shouted in outrage. "What? How did you-" Then his expression changed. "No matter, it is too late. Now the world is mine! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- huh?"

The windows on the computer screen suddenly seemed to move of their own accord. They opened, minimized and returned at breakneck speed as a red popup flashed on the screen:

 _DANGER!_

The space colony's alarms started going off, the accompanying flashing red lights further illuminating the otherwise dark control room.

"What? Why doesn't the cannon fire?! What's happening here?" The obese scientist was shouting over the noise. Sonic looked around, sharing Eggman's bewildered expression before catching a glimpse of Shadow, who was on his feet again. The black hedgehog's expression had calmed and a bittersweet smile graced his features.

"It's done." Shadow declared to no one in particular. "We'll all be joining you soon, Maria, I promise."

Sonic's eyes widened; that bad feeling he'd had about this was getting worse. What was happening now was clearly not related to Eggman's plan. As his rival's previous admission of his scheme came to mind, the azure hedgehog glowered at him. "Mind telling me what's going on here, Shadow?"

Shadow finally met his penetrating stare, but not with the glare he usually sported. "You'll find out soon enough, faker." he said emotionlessly. Crimson eyes filled with a solemn determination that worsened the hero's unease. And without another word, the ebony hedgehog turned and leapt through the gaping wall in the control room, leaving a confused Sonic in his wake.

"Hey! Wait just a second here-" He gritted his teeth, about to follow him.

The flashing windows on the computer screen finally closed and a new one opened, revealing an elderly man in a white lab coat sitting in a wooden chair, bound by chains. He wore shades similar to the ones Eggman wore and had a similarly long albeit gray mustache.

"Grandfather!" Eggman exclaimed, completely focused on the computer screen. Sonic's gaze moved from that computer screen to another one above it.

It was a smaller screen with digital numbers on it- 00:27:53:00.

The video of the old scientist played automatically and Sonic's blood ran cold as the man began to speak.

 _"This is my declaration of vengeance on all of humanity. In 27 minutes and 53 seconds, the Space Colony ARK will collide with the Earth. Along with the planet, you will all be destroyed."_

The countdown had begun.

* * *

 **Well that's that! I definitely wrote more than I intended, but I thought it'd be nice to end just before the Last Story. Hope you enjoyed it!**


End file.
